Formula 1 returns to Austin's Circuit of The Americas for the United States Grand Prix with a historic championship crowning potentially in the offing, along with several other hot topics on the agenda. The event in Texas kicks off the second of three triple-headers to end the season, with races in Mexico and Brazil immediately following this one. There is every chance that Antonelli will become F1's youngest ever world champion on one of the next three Sundays, but it would require something quite dramatic for that to be in Austin.
Antonelli would need to win the United States Grand Prix and for his Mercedes team-mate George Russell to finish ninth or lower, with Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also finishing fifth or lower. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player However the weekend plays out, it will be fascinating to see how Antonelli handles the pressure of the title being attainable for the first time. Ultimately, there has been little evidence to suggest the 20-year-old will back far away from the aggressive approach that has served him so well this season, and why should he?
A key factor in determining when Antonelli seals the title could be the performance of his Mercedes car, and more specifically the upgrades that have been brought to it in recent weeks. The Silver Arrows had projected plenty of confidence over the major package they added to the W17 at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, but it appeared to have a negative impact as they delivered arguably their least performative weekend of the season. That led to the team taking the quite extreme step of running a full test of the upgrades the following weekend in Singapore as Antonelli drove with the new parts on his car and Russell drove with the pre-Sepang specification.
The extreme heat and nature of the surface in Malaysia made it tricky for all the teams to analyse their performance, while Singapore's Marina Bay Street Circuit is also something of an outlier on the calendar. A return to a more traditional circuit in Austin therefore makes it a crucial weekend for Mercedes, whose plans for the development of their 2027 car will be significantly impacted if this package simply doesn't work. There is no longer any doubt that Max Verstappen and Red Bull are well and truly back.
The four-time world champion had to wait until the 16th round of the season for his first Grand Prix victory of 2026, but it was then just seven days before his second came along. There's no doubt that the upgrades Red Bull have gradually added to the car are working, with Verstappen having been in a league of his own over the past two weekends. Antonelli might be on the brink of glory, but there is already a growing sense in the paddock that Verstappen could end this year and start next season as the driver to beat.
Antonelli himself admitted that it would be "very scary" if Verstappen was challenging him for the title in this form. Verstappen is just eight points behind third-placed Lewis Hamilton and 17 points behind second-placed Russell in the drivers' standings, with both at major risk of being overhauled by the Dutchman in the coming weeks. While the positions below first in the Drivers' Championship count for little, Verstappen appears as though he may be in the process of laying down a major psychological marker for next year.
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